The Boston Bruins' goaltender, who leads the NHL with a .946 save percentage in the playoffs, is just as tough for his teammates to beat as he is for the opposition.

"He even plays good in practice," Jagr tells Sporting News. "I don't really like that. He's just in the zone. I never studied goaltending, so I don't know why he does it or how he does it. I'm just glad he does it."

According to the man two wins away from the Stanley Cup, and possibly the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs, the how is simple enough. Rask's philosophy makes it sound like anyone could step into the net and turn aside the NHL's best on a regular basis.

"I think you just try to stay calm and not get too excited, and just try to feel loose," Rask says. "Wait for the shot, get the good feel for the puck, and try not to let it go in."

The 26-year-old from Finland is able to thrive with a simple strategy because he is so skilled. As Bruins backup Anton Khudobin puts it, "His glove is pretty good, his blocker is pretty good, his pads are pretty good. Everything is pretty good. That's why when you look at the stats, the stats are amazing."

The stats are indeed amazing. Rask's .927 career save percentage is five points higher than the NHL's career leader, Dominik Hasek, but Rask does not yet qualify, since he has played only 138 regular-season games. In 32 playoff games, his save percentage is .933, and this year, after tying for the league lead with five shutouts, he has three more, the latest being Monday night's 28-save performance in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals.

"He's tireless," says Blackhawks star Patrick Kane, goalless against Rask on 11 shots in three games. "He stops a lot of shots, and keeps stopping them. It's not like he stops a few and waits for his defensemen to come clear the puck or something. He's always ready for the next shot. He's a great goaltender. We've faced a few throughout the playoffs, and he's playing on top of his game right now. When those rebounds come out, he seems to have that never-quit attitude and does what it takes to stop the next shot. I know he might be a little more technical than some goalies that we've played in the past, or maybe Tim Thomas, but it seems to work for him."

Because Thomas was in net and won the Conn Smythe when the Bruins won the Cup in 2011, with Rask on the bench, the comparisons are natural. The differences are evident not only from their differences in size—Thomas was listed at 5-11, 201 pounds; Rask at 6-3, 169—but in their routines, as well.

"Timmy wouldn't even go down in practice," says Boston winger Brad Marchand. "Tuukka, Jags is right, he's very difficult to score on in practice. He's almost a confidence killer. It's great that you have a guy like that who's willing to work, rather than just preparing for the games."

From a style standpoint, there is no comparison. Thomas was ultra-aggressive around the crease, poke-checking anything within reach, scrambling around the net, and sprawling to cover ground, whereas Rask always seems to be in perfect position and rarely seems like he elevates his heart rate above a casual lub-dub.

"Sometimes he makes the—in your eyes, just regular saves—it's a big save, because he's in position to make it," Khudobin says. "That's why maybe sometimes you look at him and he makes some save where it hits him in the pads, it feels like it's just a regular save, but he's just in a good position. That's why it looks so easy, and actually it's a big save."

On those rare occasions when Rask's technique does let him down—in emergencies—he has a spry, stringbean form that allows him to perform like Gumby.

"He's definitely technical, but he's a big guy and he's very athletic," says Chicago backup goalie Ray Emery. "You see him try to rely on technique and then he lets his athleticism take over to scramble. He's more of a technical game, but there's a reason that he's playing better than a lot of guys that are super-technical. It's because of his athleticism and that he's seeing things really well."

Mostly, though, Rask stays quiet in his crease—at least, from a movement standpoint. The tireless competitor that Kane describes has some attitude on the ice.

"He's pretty loud back there when I hear him," says Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk. "He's not too quiet. ... He's really emotional. He's calm when the game's on. He's in the zone after he's emotional. During the play, he's calm with his movements."

Afterward, the emotion can bubble up again. After a 6-5 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on March 27, Rask skated to the bench, tried to smash his stick against the boards, and wiped out, leading to a bit of Internet celebrity prior to his real star turn.

After succeeding where Rask failed following a muffed breakaway chance in Game 3, Marchand said, "I learned from Tuuks, so..."

The fact that one of Rask's most embarrassing moments can be easily joked about is a sign of how much he is a part of the team, which, again, brings back comparisons to his predecessor.

"He's a lot more normal than a lot of guys I've played with," says Boston defenseman Andrew Ference. "He's a pretty even-keel guy. He obviously has some times he gets extremely competitive and emotional, and that makes him who he is. As far as day to day stuff, he's not a guy that has weird rituals, or a guy you can't say a word to all day. Some goalies are like that, where they have to be in a little cocoon. It's nice that he's not like that, where all of us can't even talk to him."

The Bruins are glad to have Rask in their clubhouse, and even happier to have them on their team. That goes double for the most recent arrivals on the team, like Jagr and Kaspars Daugavins, who was denied by Rask on a highlight-reel shootout attempt in March, shortly before the Bruins claimed the Latvian winger on waivers from the Ottawa Senators.

"Tuukka is a big competitor, and he's really athletic," Daugavins says. "He's a big boy—what is he, 6-3?—In the net, he goes down and he can spread his legs from one post to the other, like, in a second. As a player, it's hard to get that puck up in a game situation. You have only a split-second in a game situation, and he covers the net so well, it makes other guys think about it. He's a great goalie, and he robbed me this year, big time. I didn't like that!"

The Blackhawks, with five goals against Rask in three games, and none in the last 122:26 of hockey, are liking it even less.